Lion Brewery New Beers and Exciting News (IPA, Pale Ale and Yes Summer Stock Lager)

I’ve been waiting quite a while to get the opportunity to post this VERY exciting news coming out of Lion Brewery and there is a LOT to tell.  Things are changing at Lion and changing in a way that will make our local craft beer lovers VERY happy.

First, beginning at 4PM tomorrow (3/4) an ALL NEW Stegmaier IPA will be brewed; and early next week an ALL NEW Stegmaier Pale Ale will be in the tanks.  These are completely new recipes and not related to Pocono Pale Ale, in fact this signals the end of Pocono Pale Ale.  This is incredibly exciting so stay tuned later this week for all of the details (IBU, hop & malt varieties and even some photos.)  Also stay tuned here for periodic updates as the beer ferments.

Next Stegmaier Blueberry Wheat has been mini-brewed in the Sabco system using a Kolsch Recipe created by Greg Reid (one of Lion’s resident QA/lab tech/beer geeks.)  It’s also my understanding this was neck & neck with a recipe developed by Ray Buchman (Brewing Supervisor) and the decision was made for pure logistics and both base wheat beers were fantastic.

Here’s the sentence MANY local beer lovers have been waiting for…Hops have been ordered for the brewing of Summer Stock Lager (YES it’s coming back!)

Experimentation is also underway on the Sabco system for a fall pumpkin beer  and there’s even a long shot possibility for a Brewmasters Choice-type of series where once a year one of the Brewmasters brews a special beer.

So here’s the thing.  Lion Brewery can’t do this alone.  This is a major shift in the marketing and name of Stegmaier, and an incredible positive shift in brewing for our local craft beer lovers from our local brewery.  The guys at Lion tell me they have taken it as a personal challenge to change the paradigm at Lion and “to have the Lion Brewery seen as the world-class brewery it is, brewing world-class beers that stand up to the scrutiny of world-class beer geeks.”

The bad news is I’m already hearing that some of our local distributors are hesitant to pick up the new line of beers from Stegmaier, so WE need to intervene.  The first batch of these beer will be a VERY limited run.  I can’t stress how incredibly important it is for us to ask our local distributors for Stegmaier IPA and Stegmaier Pale Ale.  If you like it, you want it and you want Lion to keep brewing….Ask For It!  We’ve been asking Lion to be experimental and we’ve been asking Lion to brew craft beers.  Now it’s time for us to step up and request it.  This is not hype or a sales pitch.  Only our demand will drive these beers in the future.

Finally a well deserved cheers to Leo, Bob, Darel, Greg and Ray  for creating some new and exciting beers, and to Cliff for standing behind them…Tune in tomorrow for more details.